40 Responses to WRITER IN RESIDENCE

  1. bill says:
    January 19, 2013 at 5:12 pm

    I tried to read one of his books once, years before I knew who he was. It was incredibly dull and very badly written.

       26 likes

    • graphene fedora says:
      January 20, 2013 at 6:05 am

      Talking of the great man’s literary adventures, recently, an acquaintance of mine went to hear Self speaking at a bookshop launch of his novel ‘Umbrella’. During the post-spiel questions, she told Mr Polymath that his book was sensationalist, inaccurate, callous & likely to re-stigmatise those unfortunate enough to suffer from mental illness. He asked her, disdainfully, what she knew about the subject. She replied eloquently, & politely, that she had spent the 1970s in & out of mental institutions, & sadly, had got to know them all too well. Grumpy silence ensued, & just a little flash of those ‘Gulag Calling’ eyes, before ‘Next question, please!’ Rumbled, yet again, nutted by reality, as tolerant of other opinions as a dyspeptic Gauleiter.

         19 likes

  2. RCE says:
    January 19, 2013 at 5:18 pm

    Maybe his kids go to the same school as those of the Radio 4 illuminati:

    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/im-a-diehard-leftie-but-my-son-is-going-to-private-school-6898981.html

       20 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      January 19, 2013 at 7:46 pm

      ‘I never took the view that state education was an engine of social change that’s a function of a more egalitarian economy’.

      Nor is the NHS, nor is any publicly-funded service. Expect confessions of private health insurance soon from just another hypocritical leftie who knows whats best for the rest of us. Don’t they just stink.

      Oh, and listen out for Our Will calling Cameron and Osborne ‘priveleged toffs’ and ‘out of touch’.

         34 likes

    • Miv Tucker says:
      January 19, 2013 at 8:07 pm

      Even here Self’s being a bit disingenuous as it wasn’t any old state school that he went to but the rather good Christ’s College grammar school in Finchley, north London, even though his mother apparently trumpeted her belief in comprehensives.

      Self clearly misses the irony that if those of his mother’s (and earlier) generations hadn’t worked so hard to get rid of the grammars he wouldn’t now be paying for his son to go privately.

         41 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 19, 2013 at 8:35 pm

        Self’s delusion goes way beyond the pros and cons of grammar and state schools. I know plenty of people in NYC who talk like this, say the same things he does. He believes there ought to be a quasi-Communist fantasy world where everyone (except the nomenklatura like himself, and the technocrats who keep the wheels turning) is economically equal regardless of their productivity or level of responsibility. In such an ideal world, schools wouldn’t have any effect on social mobility, because there wouldn’t be a need for mobility at all.

        I’m a fan of the Star Trek universe as well, but I don’t think all of it is possible.

           27 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      January 20, 2013 at 8:29 am

      Seems like the hypocrisy sandwich has been perfected: shameless ‘so what?’ On a drip-drip basis, complemented by a qualified, insincere apology if cornered on a howler that can’t be suppressed even by the home team kapos.
      What next for Mr. Self… An Oprah ‘interview’?

         9 likes

    • chrisH says:
      January 20, 2013 at 5:23 pm

      Oh this is priceless isn`t it?
      Thank you RCE.
      In just a few paragraphs, we get the whole weasling and chiselling to excuse HIS lad getting a proper (private) education…but leaving the plebs back in Slurry Comp.
      Still-he didn`t do it for religious or race reasons…not even for special needs reasons, although Will himself is very special isn`t he? That`s OK then , sez Willy.

      He doesn`t perceive himself to be a hypocrite-he is not institutionally hypocritist…so no further need neither to apologise or to explain.
      What a wonderful world eh?…what a champion of the tribune…made for the BBC to love him to bits!
      Maybe he does exemplify the limits of prep school though-anybody else even manage to read his Godawful “psychogeography” section of Weekend Guardian?
      If that`s writing..his son may well do better that Will I Am Self if he stays in Lambeth Slurry Skule,innit mate?

         5 likes

  3. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:
    January 19, 2013 at 5:19 pm

    What has moved the bBBC to line him up?
    Londoner, Marxist, louche, narcissist, junkie … is that enough?

       60 likes

  4. graphene fedora says:
    January 19, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    The first law of diversity & enrichment, & it is a constant:
    Those who champion multiculturalism & social engineering most fervently, always have the means to evade the dire consequences of their enforcement, be it location, or education for their offspring. Wriggling Willy Self, the gangling golem of the metro-left, is just one of many in the pantheon of phoneys. Still, he doesn’t feel like a hypocrite, so we can rest easy.

       52 likes

  5. PhilO'TheWisp says:
    January 19, 2013 at 5:56 pm

    Arrogant, hypocrite, flexible in opinion, anti British, knows where skeletons are buried, mercenary in his writing, subversive preacher, there are many qualities that appeal to the BBC.

       45 likes

  6. DB says:
    January 19, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    “Self… is set to take on a creative figurehead which will involve appearances on flagship programmes such as Today.”

    Further proving his wife Deborah Orr’s point.

       24 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      January 20, 2013 at 8:22 am

      Have to admire her devotion to hiding in plain sight. No wonder the Flokk seem to be on sabbatical as such an inconvenient narrative is now playing.

         3 likes

  7. DB says:
    January 19, 2013 at 6:19 pm

    What are the odds that R4 Controller Gwyneth Williams belongs to the same dinner party set as Self/Orr?

       34 likes

  8. chrisH says:
    January 19, 2013 at 6:40 pm

    I remember Self doing some cringing nasty little piece on Question Time a few weeks back…abusing the likes of Peter Hitchens, yet showing himself to be crude, thick and a walking advert for the criminalisation of drugs.
    A casualty of being indulged for not being sacked for openly taking drugs on Majors plane in the 97 election campaign.
    We continue to pay the price for having indulged this louche buffoon…and the BBC expect us all to keep on paying for their lazy reflex lefty bacilli like Self( is the name a clue, Beeboids?)

       36 likes

    • Rich Tee says:
      January 19, 2013 at 8:11 pm

      I think it is the drug taking on Major’s plane that has established him as a desirable anti-establishment figure in the eyes of the BBC.

      I can’t say for sure as I never listen to Radio 4. I can’t stomach all those stuck up home counties accents.

         18 likes

  9. DB says:
    January 19, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    Story isn’t true according to his wife:

       2 likes

  10. DB says:
    January 19, 2013 at 6:56 pm

       7 likes

  11. hippiepooter says:
    January 19, 2013 at 7:21 pm

    I’d linked to this earlier on the OT. I suspected it might not escape DV’s attention. This was my comment:-

    Far left polemicist and general moral degenerate Will Self to be appointed ‘Writer in Residence’ at the BBC.

    This open entrenchment of left wing BBC bias should draw howls of outrage from Tory MPs and those in politics who care about democracy. Unfortunately it wont. That’s how much our currency is spent.

       28 likes

  12. Dave s says:
    January 19, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    Let’s be realistic. Self and Today are made for each other. A match made in Beeboid heaven .

       23 likes

  13. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 19, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    Radio 4 seems to be moving from strength to strength these days, what with the special celebratory Sursum corda in anticipation of His re-affirmation, and now one of the most dedicated Left-wing ideologues taking over as their intellectual leader.

    No wonder defenders of the indefensible have all but given up save for finding the occasional report on something we thought the BBC missed.

       20 likes

  14. Reed says:
    January 19, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    Don’t worry folks – once Mr. Self has finished has stint – for balance – they are sure to give a similar position to someone like Pat Condell…who has a lot to say about ‘middle class left-wing pricks’ like Will.

    Yep – really gonna happen.

       19 likes

    • Reed says:
      January 19, 2013 at 9:04 pm

         19 likes

      • Frank Words says:
        January 20, 2013 at 8:51 am

        I can’t understand why he hasn’t got his own show on the BBC……..

           12 likes

      • ROBERT BROWN says:
        January 21, 2013 at 1:07 am

        Wonderful stuff from Pat, heard this many times, never tire of it, would love to lock the BBC staff in an airless room and play it over and over for 12 hours, bliss……..

           5 likes

        • Reed says:
          January 21, 2013 at 1:33 am

          You’ll have Universal Shami onto you for torture! Those poor luvvies!

          …but I agree, his videos are always worth viewing. He says so much in such a short space of time. So unlike Mr. Self, whose long-winded, verbose meanderings contain little of any worth or purpose, except to convey the author’s scholarly pretensions.

             4 likes

    • Cosmo says:
      January 20, 2013 at 10:49 am

      From your lips to God’s ear’s.

         3 likes

  15. scoobywho says:
    January 20, 2013 at 12:39 am

    Perhaps he can get hold of really good gear!

       3 likes

  16. GeoffM says:
    January 20, 2013 at 2:35 am

    So predictable. The BBC has its left-liberal head so far up it arse that it still cannot see its own ingrained bias. Not good for an organisation that is supposed to be balanced and fair. The thought of waking up to his droning voice is enough to stop me listening to R4 ever again.

    Does the BBC never consider that its listeners/viewers may come from any other class of people than the middle class, metropolitan, left wing establishment?

       17 likes

  17. Lynette says:
    January 20, 2013 at 8:09 am

    More dangerously it is not just “ingrained bias” it is propaganda. and this is not a joke. I know this is off subject but look at the outright propaganda against Israel of Radio 4’s Broadcasting house at http://www.netanyalynette.blogspot.co.il/#!http://netanyalynette.blogspot.com/2012/07/second-post-on-broadcasting-house.html and the letter to the BBC to prove that this was propaganda to incite hatred at http://www.netanyalynette.blogspot.co.il/#!http://netanyalynette.blogspot.com/2012/07/broadcasting-house-twins-exposing-lie.html

       4 likes

  18. Lynette says:
    January 20, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    Apologies- I’m very new to technology but the 2nd part doesn’t add much in any case.

       4 likes

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